Rekkles returns to Fnatic and the LEC for the 2023 season

Fnatic could very well be back.

After weeks of rumours and teasing, it's finally official: Martin "Rekkles" Larsson has signed with Fnatic ahead of the 2023 season. The prodigal son has returned to the LEC squad after spending two seasons with arch-nemesis G2 Esports before moving to Karmine Corp and the LFL this season.

Of course, he isn't the only addition as Fnatic has also decided to bring in Ruben "Rhuckz" Barbara from its Fnatic TQ squad. The bot lane duo will be joining the remaining members of Fnatic's current iteration, Martin "Wunder" Nordahl Hansen, Iván "Razork" Martín Díaz, and Marek "Humanoid" Brázda. This also reunites Rekkles with Wunder, who both spent the 2021 season with G2.

Aside from the new two-man addition, Fnatic also revamped its coaching staff by bringing in a two new coaches. The first is the Portuguese head coach, Gonçalo "Crusher" Brandão formerly of Fnatic TQ while Aleksi "Hiiva" Kaikkonen joins forms Misfits Gaming.

Rekkles' return to Fnatic marks his fifth stint with the organsation, which is also where he started out his career back in 2012. He's spent a total of eight years with Fnatic, which includes a five-year run from 2015 to 2020. During his time with the black-and-orange, Rekkles has won four EU LCS champions, 11 All-Pro team honours, as well as a four MVP titles.

This also includes six appearances at Worlds with his best year happening in 2018. Not only did Rekkles lead Fnatic to winning both the EU LCS Spring and Summer titles, he also led Fnatic to a semifinal finish at the Mid-Season Invitational as well as a second-place finish at Worlds 2018.

One of the few titles Rekkles has yet to achieve in Europe is winning an LEC title. He did come close in 2020 when Fnatic placed in second in both the spring and summer splits. The following season, he left the squad to join G2 in hopes of winning his first LEC title as well as a shot at Worlds. Unfortunately, it didn't quite pan out for him and he decided to swap to KC colours and the LFL for the 2022 season.

And while he didn't win an LFL trophy, Rekkles still managed to lead KC to clinching the European Master Spring tournament. And with his return back to Fnatic, fans won't even have to wait that long to see the return of the prodigal son as Fnatic will be playing in a pre-LEC show match against KOI later today at 12.30pm CT. You can check out the match on caster Marc “Caedrel” Lamont’s Twitch channel.